While there are
essentially three Patalbor universes, all three do share the same kind of world.
Patlabor is set from 1998 to 2002, so you could consider it to be alternate
universe to our own. Surprisingly it is a world that is very
similar to ours. This section details the background to the world of Patlabor,
including the Labors and characters themselves. But first a brief rundown on the
quite familiar yet sightly futuristic world of Patlabor's Tokyo is in order;

The Environment, Babylon Project and Associated Works In the 1990's two disasters befell Tokyo; a devastating
earthquake in 1995, and the world's polar icecaps melted due to global
warming, causing oceans to rise and threatening to flood costal cites. In the early
1990's barriers were constructed to stop the sea from taking the land (it is not discussed in specifics in Patlabor
on how or if governments tried to stop global warming). Tokyo also developed the
"Babylon Project" which was designed to reclaim land and eventually fill Tokyo
Bay. The rubble from
the earthquake disaster helped to provide the landfill needed for the project. In the
real world there are several reclaimed land projects in Tokyo Bay which cover
over 249 km˛,
however none are quite as ambitious as the Babylon Project.

Technology
and Labors An "Advanced Robot" project began in the early 1980's, which brought
about a development in what was called "Hyper Technology". By the end of the
decade the first prototype Labor was born. A great need for this type of
equipment was generated for construction work due to the Tokyo earthquake in
1995 and other major projects. This led to the mass production in the mid 1990's of Labors, which are
large scale humanoid robots which averaging about eight metres in height. They
were used mostly in the construction industry during the late 1990's on large
scale construction projects such as the Babylon Project where they made the work
a whole lot easier. Various non-construction types were also developed including
military versions, undersea and amphibious types. Approximately 45% of Japan's
Labors, around 3,600 units, work in or around the Babylon Project. Though the real world still
doesn't have any commercial bipedal robots yet (though there have been many
advancements over the last ten years), computers and software play a
big role in Patlabor, just like the current world today.

Politics, Crime and TerrorismTokyo still has it's problems. The major one is the critics of the
Babylon Project. A protest movement sprung up against the project and several
Militant environmental groups such as the Beach House, Home of the Sea, and the
Earth Defence Family constantly use protest and sabotage to try and halt the
progress of the project. And with the increase of Labors through out the city,
Labor crime rose as well, such as Labor theft, robbery and even driving Labors
under the influence and fights amongst construction workers. One of the most
surprising and accurate predictions of Patalbor's future world was terrorism
(though it was from religious fanatics in our time and not militant
environmentalists). But even more surprising was the prediction of computer
viruses contained in commercial software products, as seen in the first Patlabor
movie.

Labor Crime Prevention and the Special
Vehicles Unit 2To combat Labor related criminal activities, the Tokyo Metropolitan
Police Department (TMPD for short) formed of the Special Vehicles Unit Section 2 (SV2 for short).
This section used Patrol Labors (or Patlabors for short) to combat Labor crime.
While they have had some success, the problem is that most inside the police
force, and the public seem to treat the SV2 as a joke and think they are a money
pit. The SV2 hanger is stuck upon on a lot of reclaimed land in the middle of
nowhere, and the first division's Labors aren't up to scratch. Division 2 does
have better labors, but the personnel isn't what you would call officer
material. The higher-up of the TMPD unofficially sometimes consider the SV2 as a
dumping ground for problematic officers. Because of this and the nature of their
work (Labors can be rather destructive) most of the time disaster and bad press seem to follow
the SV2, despite the fact they usually get the job done and take on cases that
other sections of the TMPD and even the military find too difficult to handle.

The SV2
is made up of two units. Each has two Labors headed by one captain. Both Labors
have Forwards (the Labor pilot), a Backup (the person who drives the command car
and gives instructions to the pilot), and a Labor Carrier (as it sounds, the
person who drives the truck that caries the Ingram Labor). Division 1 is mostly
made up of former SWAT team members from TMPD, while the
beloved Division 2 is mostly regular officers who have transferred in from other
sections, hence the two vastly different ways both divisions go about their
work.

Please see the links below for more information on various
aspects to the world of Patlabor.